Although the camera did not record the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1840, Roger Fenton was commissioned to commemorate the event fourteen years later with photographs of the couple in their wedding clothes. Subsequently, royal betrothal and wedding photographs were widely disseminated, doubtless with an influence on society at large. But for a long time wedding pictures were usually limited to a studio portrait of the bride or bridal couple in formal attire, with the bride often identified as such by a bouquet rather than a wedding dress. The studio portrait remained popular until the Second World War, but with the group often enlarged, from the 1920s onwards, to include the best man and bridesmaids. By the 1900s, in England, outdoor group photographs had begun to appear, including members of the extended family. Church-door pictures proliferated from the 1920s, especially when the groom was in the forces, entitling him to an avenue of comrades making an archway of swords, bayonets, or even police truncheons. There might also be a picture of the bridal couple leaving for their honeymoon. But for most ordinary town dwellers until at least the 1950s, as images by photographers like Robert Doisneau suggest, weddings were unpretentious affairs in which photography played a modest part. (Doisneau's parents and their families, however, had treated themselves to a rather grand studio portrait in 1909.) What pictures there were tended to be formal and static, with the photographer making the exposure by removing the lens cap of a large plate camera.
After the Second World War, wedding photography (and eventually videography) became increasingly elaborate, to the point, sometimes, of hijacking the proceedings. From being the record of an event it became a major lifestyle statement, at a cost to match: in the early 21st century, photography may absorb 10 to 15 per cent of an American wedding budget. Growing affluence made weddings key success indicators and occasions for conspicuous consumption, to be documented as lavishly as possible. Demographic mobility (even between continents) enhanced the significance of family gatherings. Paradoxically, rising divorce rates made the bridal photograph into a kind of pledge of permanence, and the wedding album—in marketing parlance—a ‘precious and lasting keepsake’ or ‘treasured heirloom filled with emotion’.
Also paradoxical was the fact that wedding photography developed into a lucrative and heavily marketed industry as private camera ownership became almost universal in rich countries, with weddings among the most popular photographic occasions. (Since c. 1990 the single-use camera has swelled the image torrent.) But amateurs take on the main task at their peril. The cost of the modern wedding, and the social and emotional freight it carries, has put the professional's assets at a premium. These include, in addition to equipment (usually medium-format film and/or high-end digital cameras, and often in-house processing facilities), essential technical skills (e.g. an ability to get good pictures in bad weather), experience, stamina, tact, and a talent for self-promotion. On the other hand, the business is highly competitive, while its seasonal structure, except in locations like Hawaii or the Bahamas, where wedding photography has links with the travel industry, keeps prices high. The market is divided between a few big studios employing many photographers and a much larger number of small firms. Awards and celebrity connections create important advantages. Advertising is done via wedding magazines, regional wedding fairs, and the Internet. For both large and small firms, however, word-of-mouth recommendation plays a major role.
The wedding photographer's task falls into three stages:
Preparation
The scope and cost of the assignment are negotiated as precisely as possible, usually months in advance, and a relationship established between photographer and client.
Shooting
This requires its own groundwork. The photographer will check equipment and locations. The bride may undergo elaborate hairdressing and cosmetic preparations. On the day (or, in some cultures, over several days), the photographer must get the key shots specified by the client, sidestep the difficulties created by family feuds and snapshooting guests, stay cool in the face of cloudbursts or the appearance of ex-spouses or estranged parents, and maintain the flow of events. Sometimes he may find himself in the role of an unofficial master of ceremonies. Shooting styles have become increasingly varied. At the centre of mainstream Western wedding photography is a series of ‘essential’ shots, traditionally taken in medium format: the bride's arrival at the church or register office, the signing of the register, group pictures of family, friends, and bridesmaids, the cutting of the cake, and the couple's departure. (How much photography is permitted during the actual ceremony varies considerably.) But since the 1970s, young, affluent, and socially competitive couples have favoured a more fluid, ‘photojournalistic’ approach, in which the photographer's task is less to record an event than to direct—or observe—a narrative, sometimes shooting in black-and-white. Photographers like Dennis Reggie, Bambi Cantrell, and John Solano in the USA and Anna Henly and Annabel Williams in Britain emphasize picturesque details, unplanned incidents, and spontaneous interactions. The format of choice is 35 mm and, increasingly, digital. The end product will be ‘arty, hip and elegant’, influenced by contemporary trends in fashion, celebrity photography, and cinema. Finally, multiculturalism, and the combination in many societies, for example Japan and the Chinese communities of the Pacific Rim, of traditional and Western ceremonies and costumes, has added further subjects for the camera.
Follow-up
In this phase, the photographer will endeavour to produce prints as soon as possible, so that guests can order reprints in person. In immigrant communities, pictures may be required for display at further celebrations in the country of origin. The bridal couple will expect printed or digital proofs on returning from their honeymoon. A final selection of images may be arranged (sometimes with the help of special layout software) in a presentation album, or in a ‘wedding book’ of pictures digitally printed in conjunction with graphic designs and text. These extras, together with reprints, may add substantially to the photographer's earnings from the original package (shooting, and a stipulated number of pictures).
The afterlife of wedding photographs deserves to be better studied. Many pictures will be displayed around the house or distributed among friends and relations. The expensive tooled-leather albums and packets of prints will probably be relegated to quiet obscurity, to be viewed on anniversaries, or perhaps with children on the threshold of marriage. But in Western societies their existence is uncertain. Marital breakdown may cause them to be banished to attics, or destroyed, or—the unkindest cut of all—pushed back through the letter box at the moment of departure.
Wedding group, Morton Hall, Norfolk, June 1887. Albumen print
British wedding photograph, early 20th century
— Robin Lenman
Bibliography
- Halle, D., Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (1993).
- Cantrell, B., and Cohen, S., The Art of Wedding Photography (2001).
- Pols, R., Family Photographs, 1860-1945 (2002).
- The Annabel Williams Book of Wedding and Portrait Photography (2004)
